Andrew Campbell isn’t pretending the Belleville Senators are just another AHL roster in flux.
He’s calling this one different.
With Ottawa’s farm team once again cycling through new faces, Campbell said the people running the organization - Steve Staios, Matt Turek and Sean McCauley - “did a great job of bringing in some really good veteran players that are really good players at American League level.”
That matters in a league where turnover never stops. Belleville saw it firsthand over the last two seasons, with only seven forwards - and no defencemen or goalies - appearing in both the 2024-25 opener and the 2025-26 finale.
For Campbell, the churn is part of the job. For 2026-27, though, he sees a group that should be deeper than the club has had in a while.
“Whether (these players) end up cracking Ottawa in that depth position, or they come down and be high impact players for us,” he told the Ottawa Citizen, “it’s the deepest lineup - projected lineup, I should say - that we’ve had here in Belleville in a while.
The blue line, in particular, has a look to it. Campbell’s projected pairings are Jorian Donovan with Cameron Crotty, Samuel Bolduc with Christian Kyrou, and Tomas Hamara with Hoyt Stanley.
That’s a different feel from last season, when the attention-grabber was Carter Yakemchuk, the blue-chip defenceman who could very well be a full-time NHLer by the end of the summer. Arthur Kaliyev was the AHL’s top goal scorer with 40, but it became clear early that the big club wasn’t interested in him.
This season, the intrigue shifts to a handful of players starting their entry-level deals: Montgomery, Ellinas, Andonovski, Stanley and Reidler. Montgomery was taken 117th overall in 2024, Ellinas 104th overall in 2024, Andonovski 140th overall in 2023, Stanley 108th overall in 2023 and Reidler 151st overall in 2022.
Campbell likes what that mix brings beyond talent.
“We have a lot of high-character guys, which is what we really prioritize here,” he said. “The culture and the environment, it’s extremely important.
We’ve got some good young kids coming in, some kids who have just won a Memorial Cup there in Kitchener (Ellinas and Andonovski). Some kids coming from college, like Stanley and Montgomery, who are really good prospects.”
There’s also a fresh addition in Halttunen, who came to Ottawa in the deal with the San Jose Sharks that sent William Eklund the other way. A former 36th-overall pick, Halttunen arrives with a wicked one-timer, a big frame and his pro career still just getting started at 21.
In Other News...
Senators Fans Just Earned A Reputation The Atlantic Already Knows
Ottawas fan base has never been hard to spot, but a new study gave that reputation a number. Casino.org ranked Senators supporters second among all North American sports teams on its Rage-Baiting Index, a measure that leans on fan behavior like bragging and mocking rival supporters, and the clubs 78.5 score trailed only the New York Rangers.
It fits a team that has spent the summer reshaping its roster while staring at a rugged Atlantic Division once again. The Senators enter the new season with more to prove than most, and if the on-ice results start to match the volume around the fan base, the scene in Ottawa could get even louder in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Face A Costly Drake Batherson Decision They Can't Delay
Ottawas offseason has already brought a different look, with captain Brady Tkachuk gone and new faces like Claude Giroux, William Eklund and Andre Burakovsky in the mix. Even with the roster churn, one of the most important items on the Senators to-do list remains unfinished: sorting out Drake Batherson, who has become a central part of the teams core and is now poised to move into a much more expensive contract range.
The timing makes the situation harder to ignore. Batherson is entering the final season of his current deal, and the Senators still have not bridged the gap in extension talks. For a team trying to keep its competitive window pointed forward while reworking the roster around a new identity, the longer this drags on, the more expensive and complicated the decision becomes. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Summer Left Fans With The Same Frustrating Questions
The offseason conversation around the Senators has been less about splashy additions and more about whether the organization has finally built enough stability to take a real step forward. In a summer that left several Eastern Conference teams with more questions than answers, Ottawa was grouped with clubs whose roster decisions and player movement raised doubts about how much closer they actually are to contending.
What makes the Senators situation especially tricky is how much of their outlook still depends on the margin for error, both in the lineup and in the front offices long-term plan. The articles broader point is that Ottawa remains in the mix of teams judged harshly for the way this summer unfolded, with expectations now riding on whether the current group can turn an uneven offseason into something more convincing once the season begins. [Read more 🡒]